Channel Company Inks Deal With Zift To Strengthen SharedVue Business

The Channel Company has struck an agreement to meld its SharedVue through-partner marketing business with Zift Solutions in a move aimed at creating the industry's dominant channel marketing automation platform.

The Channel Company's SharedVue division will combine with channel marketing automation provider Zift Solutions, Durham, N.C., to form a separate, distinct business with more than 30,000 solution provider users around the globe. Zift will control and run the combined entity, while The Channel Company will retain an ownership stake in Zift, according to the terms of the deal, which was disclosed Friday.

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The combined entity will offer a broader, deeper portfolio of services to vendors that will drive channel revenue, said Robert Faletra, CEO of The Channel Company, Westborough, Mass. The Channel Company is the publisher of CRN. "We will remain involved and believe strongly this will result in an even better experience for our customers and the solution providers that use the service."

"We're creating a new powerhouse that will give more partner marketing automation muscle to the industry's channel-friendly vendors and bring automated marketing solutions to a much bigger pool of channel partners," Faletra said. "The winners here are our customers, who will benefit from our combined resources."

SharedVue's partner marketing software platform provides Web content syndication, automated email marketing and social media syndication services. Under the agreement, Zift Solutions will incorporate those core capabilities into its own platform, which automates co-branding marketing and provides collaborative and analytical capabilities.

Among the short-term benefits for SharedVue customers will be the immediate availability of Zift's Embedded Access Apps, which integrate marketing automation capabilities with popular CRM, sales force automation and inbound marketing and sales software, such as Salesforce.com, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle Marketing Cloud and Hubspot.

Longer term, customers will see extensive advances in the features and functionality of the company's technology platforms, as the deal doubles the size of Zift's research and development team, Faletra said.

SharedVue personnel will transition to become Zift employees this week. The brands and solutions will be consolidated over time and eventually will all carry the Zift name, company executives said.

The Channel Company acquired SharedVue in 2010, counting vendors such as IBM, EMC, AT&T and Dell among its marquee clients.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 4, 2015